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More by Mark Jenkins

The ever-ingratiating Denzel Washington both stars and directs this feel-bad-then-good fable, based on the mid-'30s triumphs of the debate team from all-black Wiley College. Also reviewed: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

Outsourced screened at this year's DC Labor Filmfest under the guise of a globalization parable, yet no inconvenient truths about the exportation of American jobs are revealed in the film, which is actually a sweet-natured, cross-cultural romantic

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Daniel Day-Lewis may normally choose parts in which he can do no wrong, but as the tormented film director in Rob Marshall’s musical, he doesn’t come close to drinking anyone’s milkshake. And since Guido is the essence of the story, that makes Nine a bright, shiny snooze.

The film's unfortunate veers are nicely countered with a bit of subversion in which Mark, to soothe his mother and then the rest of the world, makes up the ideas of heaven, hell, and a "man in the sky." Yes, folks: Here, God is a lie, and those who believe otherwise are portrayed as fools.